"Japan is a nation where the 3:17 train arrives every day at 3:17 — not 3:16 or 3:18..."

No, life is never that simple. Overall, train punctuality here is great. But in the heavy, big-city morning rushes, the daiya (schedule) goes all to hell. The electronic schedule signboard ceases to show trains' arrival time, simply displaying daiya ga midarete imasu (the schedule is off); trains come as fast as they can manage, not on schedule. It's not just Tokyo. I used to ride Joban line, more in the countryside; that line was habitually off-schedule in mornings, for no good reason that I could see. Read more about WIRED on cultural differences: A good story comes first

If you're not checking Hanzi Smatter, you should be. It's a popular site featuring the ridiculous, and often hilarious, kanji/hanzi "Asian writing" tattoos inked by "artists" who have no actual knowledge of the characters (or their aesthetics), then worn forever by fad-lovers just as clueless. (To the credit of blog owner Tian, s/he treats the miscreants more kindly than I did just there.) Read more about Great site: Hanzi Smatter

What's all this about robots?

"While Westerners harbor cultural fears toward robots, Japanese culture fosters a special relationship with robots, welcoming them into society as equal partners."

Oy vey. It's time to send this goofy myth to the scrapyard, once and for all.

I've got a whole laundry list of culturology (that's "culture-ology") myths to slap down. Among those, you'd think that a myth as trivial as "special cultural view of robots" would have to wait a while to reach its turn in the list, but I'm moving it to the front of the line – both because it pops up so frequently, and because it's so blatantly wrong.

Here's the general form of this particular wackiness:

Japan has a "love affair" with robots going back to 18th century wind-up dolls.

Japan's Shinto religion fosters acceptance of "spirits" in objects, including robots; "Western" religion discourages or even prohibits viewing of objects as animate.

Japanese popular culture has long portrayed robots as friendly helpers; "Western" popular culture portrays them as rebellious or violent machines.

In Japan, people welcome robots; in "the West", people feel threatened by them and even fear robots "taking over".

Proof of Japan's love of robots is the popular Tetsuwan Atom (a.k.a. Astro Boy), a friendly robotic hero. Proof of "the West's" fear of robots is Hollywood movies with robot villains, like The Terminator.

(I'm not joking about that last one; it's almost always the centerpiece of panegyrics over the "special relationship"!)

What's it about?

I'm a US citizen with 20+ years behind me living in Japan and speaking Japanese. It's about time I laid out some info for fellow (and future) learners of the language and transplants to the country.

At the same time, I have lots to say on the messy and ugly topic of "cultural differences". No, there's nothing wrong with that topic in theory, but the actual conversations that one hears are towering monuments of nonsense. Time to set some things straight. Read more about About Homejapan.com